Bassari Festival and Ligge, Ligge, Ligge!!!

On jaaraama buy sahelbe-an fof! Right after my last journal entry I left for Kedegou to see the local Bassari festival. After a full day of sitting, waiting in garages and sept-places, I finally got to Kedegou to find many of my good friends from my stage already there! In general, you see the people that live around you a lot more frequently than the other volunteers in country, so I hadn't seen many of these people in months. Needless to say, it was nice to share a few drinks and stories and catch up.

The next day we all set off from Kedegou to go out into the bush where the festival is taking place. Kedegou is a very pretty place and much different than the rest of Senegal in that there are actually small mountains instead of being completely void of any change in elevation; and like the Kolda region, it is far more forested than any place in the North. So although it is the end of the dry season and hasn't rained in at least six months, hence leaving the landscape rather dried out, it is still quite a beautiful site. So to get back on track, we all got in this giant, open-sided tour bus to get out to the campsite. As is typical with traveling in Senegal there was a huge number of us shoved into the bus, which was driving about 100mph on dirt roads, and which practically flipped on many occasions while on the real rough trails (the Senegalese guys sitting on the roof even had to jump off a few times). We did, however, finally make it to the campamment (group of huts rented out to tourists) to find that all the huts were already full. So we, about 40 of us, just set out our mats under this one big open-air shade structure and slept 3 or 4 to a mat. One good thing about the Peace Corp is that you know all the other volunteers around you are used to living in villages too, so everyone lowers their standards (as far as comfort, sanitation, eating with hands, etc...) to the level we are used to here, which can be quite comical when taken out of perspective.

That night we headed up the mountain and hung out in the village with all the locals: drinking palm wine, eating rice and bush meat, and simply having a good time. One of the great thing about hanging out with the Bassaris is that they are animists, not Muslims, so they will actually have some drinks with you and share in the merry-making (sometimes a little too much!) In typcial Senegalese fashion, someone called us over and gave us a giant bowl of rice to eat: that's one lesson I hope I never forget, there's always enough to share! The next day was the 'coming of age ceremony' for the young men of the village. This consists of the older brothers dressing up as their ancestral spirits, dancing around all morning, and then culminating in some hand to hand combat. Unfortunately, women and cameras were off limits during the fighting, so I don't have any pictures; but at least I was allowed to watch! Check out the picasaweb account for some pictures, they're costumes are great! I can only imagine how long it took some of the women of the village to make them.

After returning from Kedegou it was back to business as usual in Vélingara. I went on another weekend forum trip to the village with World Vision (check out the photo album Sare Thierno Demba). I basically act as photographer at the actual forums themselves and don't give too much other input, but it provides me with a greater understanding of what the organization is doing as a whole so I can work more effectively on other aspects of the project, such as hopefully creating a book of traditional Pulaar stories and proverbs.

I have also continued my work at the girl's technical school. I gave my last two classes of the school year, and had them create 'fake' businesses and describe their product, market, etc... Basically the 4 P's of marketing. Unfortunately I think some of the students didn't really understand what I was looking for and basically just copied my example, but there were definitely at least a few that had a good grasp on the material. Now that those classes are done for this school year I can look ahead to next year. I hope to work directly with another teacher next year so that when I return back to the US the classes can continue and become a permanent part of the curriculum. This summer I will likely work one-on-one with one of the teachers to provide a basic business training. After which we will create lesson plans and teach the classes together next year. Here's to hoping!

I, and another volunteer, Colleen, also painted some murals at the girl's school; which was a lot of fun and a nice small project that shows concrete results! She has been going around most all Senegal painting various health and education related murals, and so when I expressed interest she stopped by and helped me out. We wanted to do some murals that expressed the subjects the girls were learning in school (cooking, sewing, gardening, etc.) but also wanted to show a certain professional or entrepreneurial aspect to it. In the end we decided to paint a few designs (will put pictures of them up asap) so we did the outlines and had the girls at the school paint in the colors. Overall it came out pretty well, and the girls seemed generally pleased to play a role in beautifying their school a bit.

After all this I had to head up north to Thies for two days of a Small Enterprise Development training. Unfortunately it's a lot of traveling for only a few days of work, but Peace Corp said they'd pay for the transport and I can order good food up there (chicken!!!), so I figured it was worth it for that if nothing else. And yes, to answer your question, it is worth 25 hours (round trip) shoved in the back of a broken down old car on broken roads for chicken. The 9 hour plane ride home at the end of service is going to seem like a living in the lap of luxury!

After the training, which also offered another good chance to hang out with some old friends, I went to Dakar for a few days to hang out. I didn't really plan on spending those couple of days there, but one thing you learn quickly here is that things hardly ever go as planned in Africa. It's amazing being in Dakar... somewhere where I can simply walk down the street and walk into a mini 7-11 type store. The options are seemingly endless. There's real restaurants, that serve meat, and so many countless things that it is overwhelming. I can only imagine going back to the US at this point... everything you could want in easy access! The funny thing is that I have found my desire for many of these simple creature comforts diminish. So while it was great to see them available, I hardly ended up buying any of it. At one point while in Dakar I stopped by the zoo, which was easily the most depressing zoo I have ever been in. All the animals are in these tiny little cages alone; and while it is neat to be able to get so close to them you can practically see them losing any and all spirit they may have had. I even got hit by a rotten apple that an unhappy chimpanze threw at me!

So to continue on another one of my excessively long entrees... I finally came back down to good old Pular-land (Pulars are soooo much nicer and more laid back than Wolofs!) and have had a lot of work to try and organize within a week before heading out again. The Directrice of the girl's school, whom I give personal computer lessons, just gave birth to her fourth girl! Therefore, I attended my first Senegalese baptism this week (they do the baptism one week after the birth). It's yet another celebration centered around food, which is always ok with me! After a lot of dancing, the Directrice came out all done up in Senegalese fashion (basically that means totally over-done with makeup etc. to the point that they look like crazed monsters), and did a bit of a model runway type tour around the celebration's attendants. Unfortunately my camera's batteries were dead, so I wasn't able to take any photos, but I'm sure this will not be the last baptism I go to here in Senegal.

Well that's basically it. I will write another entry soon describing the new project I'm working on in detail. But until then, Jamtun!